


elevate my heartbeat

by jessicamiriamdrew



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, meet ugly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25673581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicamiriamdrew/pseuds/jessicamiriamdrew
Summary: Iruka hates flying, but it isn't so bad when there's a handsome stranger in the next seat.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka
Comments: 12
Kudos: 198





	elevate my heartbeat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stupidbadgers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stupidbadgers/gifts).



> hi badger i promised you a ficlet with a similar premise and it got away from me a bit, but hopefully it's close enough.
> 
> there's no real world geography here, cause it doesn't matter at all to the story. :)
> 
> this is allllllllll silliness.

Iruka hates flying. He really, truly hates it. He would rather take the train and a shorter flight, but Naruto convinced him a direct ticket would be worth the reduced travel time.

As he squeezes into his window seat, he’s not so sure.

He’s praying for an empty row, or that other seats will be open and his hypothetical seat mate will move.

“Good morning guests,” a flight attendant’s tinny voice crackles over the speakers, “it’s going to be a full flight today so please make sure to store your small carry ons under the seat in front of you.”

Iruka sighs, grabbing his headphones and pack of gum from his bag, and shoving the zipped bag below the seat.

He grabs a piece of gum, chewing to reduce his nerves and help stave off any ear popping. The last time he flew, his ears hurt so much Iruka cried for the entire descent of the flight.

His dwindled hopes are dashed when a man with a masked face, silver hair, and an eyepatch stops in front of his row. He easily moves the seatbelts out of the way and plops into the seat next to Iruka.

“Yo,” the man says, and Iruka snaps his gum in surprise.

“Uh, hello?”

The person next to him turns toward him, and now Iruka sees the earbuds and ongoing call on the phone screen.

Great, Iruka thinks a bit wildly, just an eight hour flight with someone I’ve already embarrassed myself in front of.

*

“Apologies for the delay, but we will be spending a few minutes parked on the runway as we wait for clearance to take off.”

“Okay,” Iruka mutters. What’s another few minutes when faced with an eight hour flight? Never mind the fact that take off and landing are the most dangerous parts of the flight, and once he’s in the air he can pop a Benadryl and try to sleep.

He fiddles with his seat belt and tries not to look out the window, or at all the others passengers crammed into the plane.

“I’m Kakashi,” the man next to him offers, shifting slightly in his seat.

“Iruka,” he says, because that’s what his mother would want him to do. 

“Are you okay?” Kakashi asks.

“Fine,” Iruka says. “I just hate take off and am mildly claustrophobic.”

“Must be something important to get you on an eight hour flight, then.”

“Someone,” Iruka corrects automatically. “My son.”

He must really be nervous, because he could swear Kakashi subtly checked his hand for a wedding ring. 

“Old enough to live so far away?”

“He’s in college,” Iruka says.

“Okay, you definitely don’t look old enough to have a son in college. Is he a prodigy?”

Iruka laughs and shakes his head. “No, I adopted him, so we’re a bit closer in age.”

This seems to satisfy Kakashi, and Iruka wonders when he became the type to spill personal info so freely.

“I do miss him causing trouble, even though I was the principal whose office he got sent to,” Iruka says.

“Sounds like you’re a good dad, then,” Kakashi says, smile visible through his mask, and Iruka tries not to preen.

*

When in-flight service starts, Iruka orders a ginger ale to calm his nerves.

Iruka fumbles in his bag in the seat pocket. They’re up in the air, he has a drink, and he will take a pill and hopefully pass out for half the flight.

Once he finds the pills, and they _should_ be right there, because he never travels without them.

But they aren’t in the bag.

“Missing something?” Kakashi asks.

“My preferred flying method is to use the magic of modern medicine to sleep through it, but I don’t have any pills.”

“Ahh, I have a sleep mask if you want it?” Kakashi offers.

“What if the plane starts to go down and I can’t escape because the sleep mask gets stuck?”

“Hmm,” Kakashi says. “Would you like a realistic answer or a comforting one?”

“I’m good with neither, actually.”

Kakashi laughs, and Iruka thinks maybe a long flight isn’t so bad if it’s next to someone this winsome.

*

After his drink is cleared, Iruka extracts his paperback from the seat in front of him. He tries to choose books on new subjects for long trips, in hopes that they’ll distract him from the lack of control.

Today’s book is a collection of short creative nonfiction picked by some committee Iruka has never heard of. They’re supposed to be the best of the year but they could be the worst for all Iruka cares.

He trails his finger down the list of topics.

Astrophysics, book cataloguing, modern political dynasties, dog training, and a treatise on modern art.

Maybe he should vet his reading choices more carefully. 

He flips through the book catalogue section, trying to get invested in the librarian’s diatribe against the horrors of misclassification, and fails.

Dog training it is, despite Iruka having a cat and zero dogs.

Iruka squints at the byline for the dog training non-fiction piece: Hatake Kakashi. 

It would be too out there for the person who wrote this article to be the same as the Kakashi next to him, but Iruka has learned not to underestimate the interconnectedness of the universe. He flips to the back of the book, looking for the author bios and hoping there’s photographs.

They’re small and grainy, but given that the photograph for Hatake Kakashi has someone wearing a mask, Iruka is confident that it's the same person next to him.

Iruka looks over and sees Kakashi’s visible eye closed, and the movements of his mask make it seem like he’s asleep.

The dog training essay seems much more interesting knowing who wrote it, and he settles back in to read it.

*

Five hours into the flight and Kakashi has slid in his seat, his head lolling onto Iruka’s shoulder.

What does it say about my life, Iruka thinks, that this is the most romantic thing that’s happened to me in years?

A stranger on a plane who Iruka will never see again snoring as he dozes against Iruka. Somehow charming, despite the part of Iruka that wants to screech about the societal rudeness of falling asleep on another person on a plane.

Iruka sighs and lets his eyes slump shut.

*

He wakes up to the sound of the pilot announcing they’re beginning their descent, and the anxiety he’d subsumed spikes, as his eyes open.

“Iruka,” Kakashi says, nudging him. “Take a deep breath.”

He wants to say that will just make him hyperventilate. “You didn’t say you’re a dog trainer.”

Kakashi smiles, bemused, and Iruka grabs his book. “You have an award winning article!” he says.

“Ah,” Kakashi says, face bright. “I have some fun.”

The plane hits a bump of turbulence and Iruka squeaks. 

“Do you wanna see a picture of my dogs?”

Iruka would like that very much, actually, and Kakashi leaning in to show him said photos is even nicer, especially when their hands brush.

*

“Do you want to split a cab?” Kakashi asks, keeping pace with Iruka as they deplane and make their way through the terminal.

“Ah, my son is actually picking me up,” Iruka says, flustered. 

Kakashi nods and Iruka considers calling Naruto to tell him that Iruka will take a cab. Just to prolong this encounter. His phone lights up at that moment with a string of emojis from Naruto, including a plane, which Iruka puzzles apart to mean that Naruto is already at the airport.

“We could give you a ride,” Iruka blurts. “It’s the least I could do since you kept me calm on a flight.”

“That was calm?” Kakashi says, his tone teasing.

“One time I locked myself in the plane bathroom and they had to lure me out with free alcohol,” Iruka deadpans.

The embarrassment of the story is worth hearing Kakashi’s laugh.

Naruto is waiting right past security and the grin on his face surely matches the one Iruka feels spreading across his own. He hugs Iruka to him, even lifting Iruka off the ground for a few seconds.

“Hi dad,” Naruto says, and Iruka ruffles his hair. “Who's the weirdo lingering behind you?”

“Naruto! I raised you better than that!”

“Did you though?” Naruto asks, taking Iruka’s carry-on bag from him as they begin the walk to baggage claim..

“This is Kakashi; I said we could give him a ride.”

“Do you even know what part of the city he’s going to?”

Kakashi speaks up and names a neighborhood Iruka doesn’t recognize, but Naruto seems to.

“Alright,” Naruto says, “I guess I can play taxi for this stranger. Suna isn’t that big.” 

Kakashi says his thank yous and even manages to crack a few jokes while they wait for their bags.

“I managed to get a good spot in the garage,” Naruto says as he hefts up both of their suitcases.

Iruka and Kakashi trail Naruto as he heads to the car, Naruto chatting steadily, and it frightens Iruka how nice of a time this is.

“You both have to sit in the back,” Naruto proclaims as he loads up the car. “Otherwise you’ll criticize my driving.”

“Doesn’t he know the term backseat driver?” Kakashi stage whispers, once they’re both settled in the backseat.

Naruto sticks out his tongue and turns the air conditioner on full blast.

*

“I’m hungry,” Naruto proclaims, fingers tapping on the wheel. “Sorry, stranger, but we’re making a dinner stop.”

“It’s fine,” Kakashi says. “I’m headed to a hotel room so no rush.”

Naruto pulls over to the first ramen shop the GPS suggests, just as Iruka’s stomach grumbles.

*

They get a table in the back and when Kakashi excuses himself to wash his hands, Iruka knows what Naruto is going to say.

“Dad,” Naruto says, “please tell me you volunteered me to give him a ride home because you’re intending on sealing the deal at some point.”

“Kakashi is a stranger,” Iruka says, dragging his hands over his face. 

“One you’re calling by his first name. He lives in Konoha, and I’ve never seen you this put together after a flight.” Naruto squeezes his hand. “Besides, you haven’t really dated since Mizuki.”

“I’m not lonely,” Iruka protests.

“Never said you were.”

“Were what?” Kakashi asks, sliding into the other side of the booth.

“Straight!” Naruto all but yells. “He’s not straight!”

There’s a beat of silence where Iruka contemplates wrestling the keys away from Naruto and leaving the restaurant.

“Me either,” Kakashi adds, face pink.

“Great!” Naruto says. “Let’s eat ramen.”

*

“Don’t you always tell me it’s rude not to help people with their belongings?” Naruto hands Kakashi’s suitcase to Iruka from the trunk. “Better make sure he gets inside safely.”

Iruka is glad for whatever cover the darkness is giving the blush he can feel.

“He’s subtle,” Kakashi says, as Naruto gets back into the car and sticks on the flashers.

“I’m sorry,” Iruka says, shifting the suitcase between his hands. “He just worries about me now that I live alone.”

Kakashi makes a hmm noise that Iruka can’t interpret.

“I have to check in, so I won’t actually make you walk me to my room,” Kakashi says. “But maybe I could get your phone number? I’m only here for a three day weekend.”

“Yeah,” Iruka says, “I’d like that.”

“One more thing,” Kakashi says and steps closer.

He tugs his mask down and kisses Iruka, and no one has kissed him this tenderly in ages. Kakashi nips playfully at his bottom lip as he pulls away.

Iruka drops the suitcase with a thump.

“Oh god, please tell me there were no breakables in there.”

“I’m not concerned,” Kakashi murmurs, running his fingers through Iruka’s ponytail. “About that phone number, though.”

It takes another kiss or two or three, but they do trade numbers.

Kakashi fixes his mask and picks up his suitcase, whistling as he walks through the hotel doors.

“Not a word,” Iruka tells Naruto when he opens the car door and slips into the front seat.”

*

On his flight back to Konoha a week later, he manages to sleep through most of the time in the air, and does his best to distract himself with soothing podcasts the rest of the time. 

That doesn’t prevent his death grip on the arms of the seat during landing, but since he has the row to himself it’s not so bad.

He turns on his phone when the announcement is made that it’s safe to do so, and texts Naruto to tell him he’s made it through the plane ride safely.

Iruka deplanes and heads to the more familiar baggage claim area, even though he’s usually the one picking someone up.

“Yo,” a now familiar voice says from behind the carousel. “How was your flight?”

His stomach flips and this time he knows that it’s the good kind of nerves. 

“No handsome strangers this time,” Iruka replies, bumping his shoulder against Kakashi.

“Well,” Kakashi drawls, “I may not be a stranger, but I thought we’d grab takeout and go back to your place to eat.”

“Sure,” Iruka says, “as long as you show me plenty of dog photos.”

**Author's Note:**

> ty deepestbluest for giving this a read through and helping me when i got stuck!
> 
> i've had a ridic productive few days! you can find me on tumblr at the same url.
> 
> title from the song taxi by EXES


End file.
